Roses
by stargazer84
Summary: Just a little oneshot Valentine's Day fic. Tai and Sora discover thier true feeling for one another just in time for the romantic holiday. Rated T for language.


Disclaimer: For the last time, I don't own it!

A/N: Yeah, this is just a little one shot V-Day fic in between chapters of B.A.A. ß hehe…its initials spells baa. Anyways…enjoy!

* * *

Roses

February was always a busy month for Sora. Wake up at six, be at school by seven, tennis practice at three, home for dinner by five, work at the shop until nine, go home and do homework, sleep, and get ready to do it all over again the next day. The weekends weren't much better, matches in the morning, then back to the shop to help her mother.

It was a sunny Saturday, and Sora had just finished her seventh bouquet of roses. She was sweaty, her face was smudged with dirt, and she reeked of fertilizer. Yes, Valentine's Day was coming. Sora sighed as she heard the bell at the shop's door ring for the hundredth time that day. She threw off her gloves, and wiped her face on her sleeve. She prepared herself as she made her way to the counter. Yes, we have roses, yes, we deliver, yes, I can write out the card for you, because your to dumb to come up with your own heartfelt saying.

Yet as she pushed the door open, she sighed with relief. There leaning on the counter, reading over the order forms, was her best friend. It looked as though he was on his way home from soccer practice. He had on a grey t-shirt, blue shorts, towel slung over his shoulder, as well as his gym bag.

"Gross. The last thing I need is for you to be sweating all over my order forms." Sora said as she dramatically held the clipboard with two fingers as far away from her as possible.

Tai laughed as she set it on the other side of the register. "Oh, because you smell any better. Let's see…" he said as he whiffed the air like a wine connoisseur. "Ahh…roses with a hint of cow shit."

Sora threw her gloves at him as she shushed him. But she couldn't help but laugh. She leaned on the counter as she watched two guys scratch their over the daffodils or tulips. Sora shook her head at them. Tai turned his head to look over his shoulder at the two guys.

"It's not easy you know." Tai said as he looked back at her.

"They're flowers." She said knowingly, "Just pick the ones that you'll think look good together."

"Yeah, easy for you to say, Daisy Queen, you do this everyday. For us guys, if we pick one flower that looks remotely out of place, or smells too strong, we're screwed." Tai said as he stood up straight.

"I hate Valentine's Day. Why should you love someone more on one certain day, than any other?" Sora said flabbergasted.

Tai shook his head at her with his famous lop-sided smile. He shifted his bag on his shoulder, as he watched his best friend. He knew from years of knowing her that she longed for someone to come along with fresh flowers and a chance at love. She sighed as she too stood up and reached for the clipboard.

"Guess I should get back to work." She said as she flipped through the forms.

"Yeah, I should get home. I'll call you later." He said as he made his way to the door.

"Bye Tai." She said as she watched him leave.

Deep down she wished that Tai stayed a little longer, it gave her an excuse not to go across the store and help the clueless tulip gentlemen. Although she knew that her mother would be quite upset with her for not getting through at least a few of the orders. Sora grabbed a blank form and made her way across the store, no sense in having these gentlemen racking their brains any longer.

* * *

Tai leaned against the row of lockers early Monday morning as he listened to a few of his teammates talk of how they planned to spend Valentines Day with their girlfriends. Most of these well thought out plans concluded with the hopes of the evening ending in the backs of their cars. Tai smiled and shook his head at his friends as he watched his fellow schoolmates pass in the hall.

As years passed since their adventures in the digital world, the digidestined split into different 'clicks' when they reached High School. Izzy hung out with, what were labeled, the 'geeks,' though he was far from it in Tai's mind. Izzy was more than someone to turn to for homework help. In fact, Tai found Izzy to be one of his closer friends. He was the one Tai could count on for advice in anything.

Tai nodded his head to Matt as he walked by. Matt wasn't the loner he used to be in the past. He tended to hang out with his band members more than anyone else. Tai figured Matt liked the whole 'safety in numbers' aspect of his group.

Tai watched as Matt continued down the hall to his locker, giving Sora a smile as she greeted him with a 'good morning.' Sora mainly sat on the hallway floor with her teammates in the morning. Though she wasn't as rich as they were, they had accepted her for more than her skill, but her sheer kindness towards everyone.

Tai watched her as she laughed with her friends. Her whole face lit up as she smiled at her friends. He always liked how she tilted her head to the right as she happily listened to her friends talk. How her eyes shined with happiness when she was with the people she cared for.

Sora listened to her friends talk of their weekend, when the sudden wave of being watched came over her. She frowned slightly and looked around. Matt was talking to his drummer, who was beating out a tune on his math book, to the right of her. Teachers passed by with the hopes of grabbing a second cup of coffee before the bell rang. It was when she looked to her right that she found the culprit. Tai was smiling at her. She smiled back as her friend Ami, asked her a question.

"Sora? Hello, Sora?" Ami said waving her arm in front of Sora's face.

"Hmm? What? What did I miss?" Sora asked as she looked at her friend.

Ami laughed as she pulled her arm back. "I asked what you were doing for Valentine's Day."

"Oh, I'm working. Busy day for the shop, you know." She answered. "Umm, excuse me for a minute."

Sora slowly got off the floor, brushing her skirt off as she stood. She walked a little ways down the hall, until she stopped at Tai's side with her hands on her hips. She tried giving him the most put out look she could, trying very hard not to smile. Tai stood up straight smiling at his friend. He knew he was in trouble, but decided to play dumb.

"Good morning, Sora. Enjoy your weekend?" He asked with a wide smile.

"No. As I recall, a certain someone said that he would call, and never did." She responded tapping her foot.

Tai dramatically slapped his forehead. "I knew I forgot to tell Matt to call you about his next concert. Matt how could you let me forget!" Tai yelled down the hall.

Matt looked back at Tai and Sora with a confused expression on his face. But when he saw Tai's over exaggerated face, he played along. "Sorry man, won't let it happen again." He said as he raised one hand to his heart and the other in the air to show that he promised.

"Yeah, that's right, you better not. Ruin this poor girl's weekend like that. Jeez, the nerve of some people." Tai said shaking his head and looking back at Sora.

She rolled her eyes at him, and took her hands off her hips. "I was talking about you, mop head." She said as she poked him in the chest.

"Ow, Sora that hurt." Tai said as he rubbed his chest.

"Good, now you know how hurt I was when you didn't call." She said glaring at him.

Tai braced himself, waiting for the argument to continue, when the bell rang. Tai sighed as he reached for his bag.

'Saved by the bell.' He thought as he saw Sora walk back over to her friends to get her things.

Matt walked over to her and offered to take her books as she reached for her backpack. They walked back over to Tai. They all had math together first thing in the morning, not their favorite subject to deal with so early, but they always made it fun.

Tai sat behind Matt in the second to last row, and Sora sat next to him. Tai could remember the friendly argument they had the first day of class. Sora wanted that seat to be by the window, and Tai wanted it because it was in the back of the class and the view had a clear shot of the soccer field. That seat made to daydream. In the end Tai gave in and let Sora sit there, and he resided to her right. Within a week, Tai was quite happy that he let Sora have that seat. He loved watching the wind blow threw her hair during those warm September days.

Tai smiled at her as she settled in to her seat. Sora raised her eyebrows as she threw her book on her desk.

"I'm still mad at you." She said searching for a pencil.

"You know you can't stay mad at me. I think our longest argument was what...?" Tai looked at Matt as he counted the hours. "A day and a half and it was over a stupid hair clip."

"Well, you made fun of my hair; I had the right to hold a grudge for a day." She said searching her purse for that elusive pencil.

Tai watched her search, and then reached for his bag. "If I let you have this pencil, will you forgive me?" He said holding it out to her.

Sora stared at the pencil for a second, then at Tai, and sighed.

"Fine, I forgive you." She said as she grabbed the pencil from him with a small smile.

Tai laughed as he opened his book.

* * *

Sora sat at her lunch table with her friends, and listened to their after practice plans. Listened to all the shops they were going to visit, the country clubs that they were forced to appear at by their parents. Sora didn't envy any of them. Granted at times she wished she could find the time to just lie about and do absolutely nothing, and not have to worry about the bills. Then again, that might get boring.

Sora's eyes wandered the cafeteria. Her eyes landed on a certain brown haired friend. He was laughing with his friends as he wolfed down his food. It was almost impossible to watch him, his table manners never changed. But she didn't care; she was used to him shoving half a sandwich in his mouth. She smiled at him from across the lunch room. Tai was still chewing and looked over at her and smiled back.

Sora realized, as she looked back at her friends, she had been thinking about Tai a lot lately. Well, how could she not. She knew he was always looking at her during class. She caught him a few times, he would look at her then when she turned to look at him, he would focus his eyes out the window. At first, she though he was just messing with her. But then, one day last week, she caught him doing it again, only this time he didn't look away. They sat there just staring at one another for a few minutes, until Sora became self conscious.

She shook herself out of this little staring contest, and mouthed the word 'what?' to him. Tai just took a second and gave her a wide smile and mouthed, 'nothing.' Sora just laughed at him and focused her attention back to the class.

Since that day, she found herself watching his every move. If she got out of tennis early, she made her way over to the soccer field to watch him play. She loved watching his body move, seeing his muscle flex, but mostly the joy that radiated from his face when he played. His smile was the same smile he gave her when they saw one another.

Then it dawned on her. Could Tai possibly like her? She frowned at the idea. There's no way he could. I mean, this was Tai. The Tai she had known since she was four, the Tai that threw up in her hat and didn't tell her, the Tai that insulted her about her hair. He couldn't possibly like her, could he?

She looked back across the cafeteria at her best friend. He was doing it again. He was just staring at her. Sora frowned and got up.

"Sora, where are you going? The bell doesn't ring for another five minutes." Her friend Yuri asked looking concerned.

"Umm…I forgot my chemistry book in my locker. I'll see you at practice." She said as she grabbed her bag and quickly walked out of the cafeteria.

* * *

Tai watched as Sora made a mad rush out of the lunch room. Tai glanced at her friends and noticed that they were talking then looked back at him. He gave them a confused look. She couldn't possibly be _that _upset about him not calling her? Could she? Only one way to find out. Tai grabbed his bag and turned to follow Sora out into the hall.

He saw her standing at her locker trying to get it unlocked. It wouldn't budge. She shook the handle, and then tried the combination again. Tai came up behind her and banged his fist on the door. The locker door swung open gently. Sora turned to look behind her. She found herself blushing for no reason.

"Where were you off to in such a hurry? Is everything alright?" he asked as he leaned against the lockers next to her.

"Umm… yeah…I just forgot a book." She said as she tried to hide her face in her hair.

Tai knew when she was lying to him. Without thinking he brushed her hair out of her face. She turned to him, surprised at the contact. Her face was as red as her eyes. He slowly tucked the elusive hair behind her ear and let his hand rest on her cheek.

"You're lying to me, Sora." He said in a husky voice.

She blinked at him. Her heart was racing. She could smell his earthy aftershave. It was intoxicating. She found herself edging closer to him. His hand was stroking her cheek, and slowly making its way back into her hair. Tai closed his eyes as he slowly brought his face down to hers. Sora put a hand to his chest as she arched her neck towards him. He was a mere inch from her lips when the bell rang, bringing them back to reality.

Sora jumped back in surprise and stared wide eyed at Tai, before she realized what had almost happened. She quickly grabbed her bag and shut her locker and joined the crowd in the hallway before Tai could say anything to her.

Tai stood there trying to find her in the sea of people in the hall. But to no avail, he lost her. Had he just made the mistake of trying to show her how he really felt about her? Did he just ruin his friendship with her? All these thoughts flooded his mind as he stood there getting bumped passersby. Only when his goalie swung his arm around his shoulders did Tai actually make the attempt to move with the crowd.

* * *

The rest of the week went by rather quickly. The school halls were decorated with little pink and red hearts for the upcoming holiday. Girls came into school to find roses in their lockers from their boyfriends, while the guys found anonymous valentine cards at the bottom of their lockers.

Sora had spent a majority of the week working at the shop, and could tell if the flowers that were being passed around were one of her pieces. She managed to squeeze by a hugging young couple only to slip on a piece of paper on the floor. She fell forward into the arms of her friend Matt. Matt straightened her out as she looked at the floor. There was a massive pile of cards littering the floor in front of his locker.

"The funny thing is, I could tell you who sent half of these cards." Matt said as he crossed his arms and stared down at the pile, shaking his head.

"What are you going to do with all of them?" Sora said as she reached down for a handful.

"Probably just throw them away." He said.

"Matt, that's horrible. You can't just throw them away." She said laughing as she went through the cards.

"Well what else am I supposed to do? I can't just leave them here. Clumsy people, like you, will slip on them." Matt said.

Sora threw a card at him, and laughed. "I'll get you a garbage can, you stand guard and keep people, like me, from breaking their necks."

Sora walked down the hall to the nearest classroom, care not to slip on another card. But as she was focusing on the ground she didn't see the figure approaching her, and walked right into him.

"Oh, I'm sorry I…" Sora started as she looked up at the figure.

Tai looked at her with an equal amount of surprise. Ever since Monday, the two had been avoiding each other. Neither of them knew what to say or how to act around one another. It had become increasingly uncomfortable to sit so close to one another during Math. This air between them was worse than when they argued. At least they still spoke to one another, granted it was yelling, but knowing that they could talk and try and resolve things was far better than this.

"No, it's ok. My fault." Tai said as he looked down at her.

She was beautiful when she blushed, he thought. Although lately, she was always beautiful. It amazed him that she wasn't the one with a locker filled with cards. To Tai, she was the most stunning girl in this school. The others were fools not to see this.

"Well I better…Matt needs…excuse me." She stuttered as she walked around him to get to the classroom behind him.

Tai stood there inhaling her scent as she brushed past him. Matt walked over to him, shaking his head and slapping Tai on the arm.

"Ya have to tell her, man. I mean its Valentines Day for Christ's sake." He said as he shoved a paper heart into his chest.

"Yeah, I know."

* * *

Sora had been busy since she got home from practice that day. She got home from practice, and her mother rushed her into the shower, she needed her down at the shop as soon as possible. Sora dressed and ran down the stairs to help ring people out. A majority of the customers were last minute shoppers looking for anything to give to their sweethearts. Sora spent most of the night taking orders, and giving them to her mom to make in the back room.

Around nine o'clock it started to quiet down. Sora was in the middle of filing the order forms when the bell rang. Sora turned to find a desperate young man in his twenties walk in. He paced the whole shop, until he found one single yellow rose. Admitting defeat he walked up to the counter.

"Guess I'll take this. You know I went to three shops before I came here, and not one of them had anything left. Guess that's what I get for waiting so long." He said as he fished out his wallet.

"Here, let me see it." Sora said asking for the rose.

The young man gave it to her and watched as she filled out a card and took out some ribbon. She carefully punched a whole in the card and laced the ribbon through it. Then she skillfully tied the ribbon around the rose, and handed it back to the young man. He opened the card and smiled. It read:

"One Rose For The One That Stole My Only Heart."

"It'll be seven dollars." Sora said as she rang him up.

"Thanks a lot. You saved me from quite the argument." He said as he handed her the money.

"No problem." Sora smiled as she handed him his change.

The young man walked out and Sora's smile faded as she turned to finish filing. She put about three papers away when she heard the bell ring again.

"If you're looking for flowers, you're a little late. We're sold out of everything." She said as she continued to file without turning around.

"I wasn't looking for flowers."

Sora turned at his voice. Tai stood on the other side of the counter looking at her, while holding a single flower.

"Sora, for years now I've wanted to tell you that I love you. I just never had the courage to say it. And the other day, I wanted to show you, but we were interrupted. But today I've found the courage, and there's nothing here to stop me from telling you that I love you more than anything in this world. You're my best friend, my first crush, and my one true love. So I ask you, Sora, to open your heart to me, and believe me when I say that I will love for the rest of my life."

Sora was at a loss for words as her best friend proclaimed his love for her. She slowly walked around the counter and made her way over to the door. She flipped the Open sign over to 'Closed,' and walked right up to Tai and smiled at him. She slowly leaned up and gently kissed his lips as he wrapped his arms around her small waist.

"I love you too, Tai." She whispered as he kissed her again.

The End.

A/N: there a nice little v-day fic for you. Hope you enjoyed. Reviews are welcomed. Thanks for reading! SR


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